Smoked Porter

When I think of a recipe, I always think about how I would like to drink the beer, in what weather, and in which setting. Lessons from a crazy man called Randy Mosher.A rich smoked porter would be perfect on a chilly night in my balcony.

Recipe Development

I have a porter recipe that has some good layering of biscuit, caramel, chocolate and coffee. Time to smoke the beer. Many recommendations on the internet talk about substituting as much as half the base malt with smoked malt. To me it would taste like someone crushed a lot of smoked bacon and added it to your glass to mess with you ;)

Safale US05 5gMash Salts1g CaCO30.6 NaHCO3If you don't have CaCO3, add a little more NaHCO3 ( baking soda ), to get to a pH 5.4.

Tasting Notes

Tasters could identify chocolate, coffee and caramel as expected. Most also got the smoked flavour.What was really interesting was that everyone asked me if I had added molasses or dark jaggery into the beer.The smoked malt gave a perception of jaggery and surprisingly some sweetness.Overall it turned out be an excellent beer.Probably the best beer I made in 2018 !!

Next Time

Usually there are improvements in section, but for this time - Make a 19 liter batch :)